Rain City

Zapata Singh

Description:

CURRENTLIFE

Zapata is 33 years old, and lives in Georgetown in a work-loft down the street from the Calamity Jane bar, which she shares with her dog, Lisbeth, a gentle giant of a mutt

the first floor is her art studio, though she doesn’t care if anyone ever buys anything. It’s there for her to work on stuff with her hands while she’s trying to unravel a puzzle with her brain

she also has some bad-ass computer-driven manufacturing tools — injection molding, 3D printer, etc — where she makes her magical-potential items

Pandora Station: The Gits, 7 Year Bitch, Bikini Kill, Sleater Kinney

when her funds run low, she’ll take a short-term computer consulting gig — ideally only if the problem is interesting, but sometimes just for the money.

Zapata is not ‘office material’ and while capable of playing well with others, prefers not to

Zapata’s extended family still lives near Lake Sammamish, in a close knit community mostly from India but also other South-Asian sub-communities that share certain cultural, religious or culinary passions

her father is a teacher at a high-school

her mother keeps the household, and volunteers in the community

her older brother is a Doctor at Swedish in Ballard, married with 3 kids

his oldest, a 12 year old daughter, worships Zapata, which is a source of contention between the siblings

and her younger sister is stay-at-home mom in Bellevue, also 3 kids already, oldest is 9

her husband is a mid-level sys-admin bouncing around from tech-company to tech-company

visiting her family is not something she relishes

Zapata used to make a game of timing how long it will take her father and brother to ask her when she’s going to settle down and get married, but they’ve long since given up

her in-laws, however, definitely don’t understand her

while her older brother’s wife mostly just doesn’t want her daughter to grow up to be like her

her younger sister’s husband is very traditional and actively offended by Zapata’s lifestyle

PERSONALITY

Rights & Wrongs

Authority: “authority can bite me” — Zapata has zero patience for official authority and its patriarchal underpinnings

The Law: “he started it, I finished it” — Zapata’s criminal record attests to her loose attitude towards the line between self-defense and assault — good thing they don’t know just how deadly her smart phone is

Lying: “you wouldn’t believe me if I told you” — lying is unnecessary, the blunt truth is what is hard enough for people to swallow

Habits:

Other People:

Magic/White Council: “just another group of old, white men, I bet” — the whole idea reeks of patriarchal repression

Killing: “some people, the world is better off without” — sounds good on paper, but taking a life is what the oppressors do, she wants to be better than that

Cheating: “cheating is defined by those who have already rigged the game” — Zapata prefers to challenge the assumption that rules must be followed

Friends and Foes

Mundane Ally: Carrie Stone, bartender at Calamity Jane

Magical Ally: [name], local chapter head of Paranet

Mundane Enemy: [name], beat cop downtown

Magial Enemy: [name], someone at Psion

Goals

Ongoing:

protect the Paranet

protect today’s versions of the Riot Grrrls

Short term:

improve enchanted item shop

investigate the fog

Medium term:

Understand where Mathemagics fits into the broader magical world

Investigate Psion

Long term:

Investigate what she saw on the other side of the Impossible Algorithm

ASPECTS

High Concept: “Mathemagical Riot Grrrl”

she is part of a new wave of practitioners that have the White Council a bit befuddled

the deduction of ‘magic’ through ‘science’ by way of advanced mathematics

and the brute force processing of these formulas via technology

unlike many magic users, they have no adverse affects on technology

in fact, their techniques overtly depend on / make use of technology

Angus: Just some things to think about: You might be creating effects that work in a similar way to magic, and have similar restrictions, but if those things are based on technology (e.g. a phone that has an app on it or whatever), the magic that OTHER people are doing may still negatively impact it. Kind of like putting a piece of fancy electronics next to a power substation.

Re: Riot Grrrl

Zapatta definitely has a rebellious streak, going back to her formative teenage years sneaking off to the city to stay out all night at punk rock concerts

the Riot Grrrl culture took her in, gave her friends and a sense of place — something her own community at home was actively NOT providing

it also inspired in her a protectiveness towards other girls who were being oppressed and held back, or even abused and mistreated

and gives her higher purpose for what she wants to do with her Gift

this extra label definitely sets her apart from any other ‘Mathemagical Crafters’ in terms of making it a complete High Concept

Trouble Aspect: “The Forbidden Fruit is Sweetest”

Zapata’s parents learned the hard way that forbidding something to her was guaranteed to make her want it all the more

while a child, this simply resulting in frustration and misbehavior, as a teenager it blossomed into full on rebellion (sex, drugs and rock-and-roll pretty much)

this didn’t step Zapata from excelling in school — in fact, it amused her to no end to defy others’ expectations: how can this odd girl with the brightly colored hair, inappropriate piercings and outlandish clothing ALSO be so damn smart

Zapata especially enjoyed poking her way into scholastic topics where she felt the most unwelcome, like computer science and math

she’s been burned enough by nosing her way into trouble, but she just can’t seem to back down when something new and interesting and off-limits crosses her path

Scenarios where it might be invoked or compelled:

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Background: “This is Happening Without Your Permission”

originally: “Patriarchy Can Suck My Left One”, but can’t really say that one out loud when we’re playing at Ando’s place. ;)

Zapata’s birth name is Suhasini… but she legally changed it when she turned 18

she named herself after the lead singer of one of her favorite band as a teenager, The Gits, Mia Zapata was raped and murdered in 1993. the local punk rock scene took it hard and some formed a anti-violence and self-defence organisation, Home Alive.

Zapata’s grandparents are originally from India, by way of England, but came to the Northwest since the late 40s

she remembers her grandmother once saying that an English ancestor was originally from the Northwest U.S., but that was long ago

Zapata grew up in Issaquah, back before it was more suburban, and it should have been a comfortable but certainly simple life

the close-knit Indian community is very traditional and patriarchal

they even have a local Khap Panchayat, an all-male, unelected village council to adjudicate cultural norms and enforce conformity

yeah, that didn’t go over too well with the young Suhasini

on several occasions, she brought shame to her family by causing the Khap Panchayats to pass judgements on her behavior and attempt to force her parents to bring her in line

fortunately, the worst of it was late in High School and then she was off to College at the UW and ‘out of sight, out of mind’

while her father is very traditional, her mother recognized that the rules are different in America

she would often play games with Zapata, logic games and puzzles and the like — pretty much the best thing from Zapata’s childhood

while Zapata’s academic successes in computer science and math were lauded by her scholastically minded family, they expected it would be yet another ‘phase’ and that she’d meet a nice Indian boy at University and settle down

Rising Conflict: “Haunted by Curiosity”

she couldn’t NOT solve it and wrestled with it day and night for weeks

even though she essentially figured out the answer she thought he was expecting fairly quickly, it was the solution that she saw lurking under the surface that plagued her imagiation

the end result: her first mathemagical construct — and her first contact with the things that still occasionally haunt her dreams

Zapata blames Dr. Fred for what happened, whether through maliciousness or incompetence, she does not know

after this event, though, she stopped excelling in class, purposefully coasting through to the end of her degree, with a good solid “C average”

but in her spare time, she kept digging away at the new powers she’d discovered

Scenarios where it might be invoked or compelled:

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The Story (First adventure): “Justice is a Patient Motherfucker”

Jesus Mezquia was convicted of murdering Mia Zapata, the lead singer of The Gits, a Seattle punk rock bad in the 90’s — and Zapata’s name sake

all this in 2004, nearly 11 years after Mia’s murder

trying to figure out if Zapata could have a magic item of the ‘finding people’ variety, and Russ’ character helped her out by providing access to the cold-case materials — like the DNA that ultimately convicted Mezuia in real life

the idea being that she helped find him (probably totally stumbled across him ’cause her little app that has been running in the background for years suddenly goes “PING” one day), that kind of thing)

OR through a magical item that she’s been using to try to find the killer, she’s convinced that Mezquia isn’t actually the one that killed Mia Zapata

but he’s total scum and deserves to be in prison, so she stays quiet

plus not like her ‘evidence’ is admissible in court

this could hook into the story threat that we didn’t end up pursuing, namely that the Northwest sure does have a lot of serial killers . . .

Scenarios where it might be invoked or compelled:

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Guest Star: “Standing up for the Underdog”

attending a Paranet meetup

Joe ends up in confrontation with another practitioner

she’s focused on making sure the female Paranet members get out safely

but she also gives Joe a hand, as he seems to be the one that’s being taken advantage of

and maybe the oppression of the Native Americans strikes a chord in her as well

Scenarios where it might be invoked or compelled:

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* Guest Star Redux: “For the Society”

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Scenarios where it might be invoked or compelled:

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Bio:

REFRESH (9 pts)

Ritual (-2)

magic item crafting

4 enchanted item slots

Refinement (-1)

4 more enchanted item slots

Math is Beautiful

Mortal Stunt (-1)

skill: Scholarship

similar to: Junkyard Artiste

effect: use Scholarship (Computer Use) instead of Performance (Composition) to create works of art

“You Think I Give a Shit What You Say?”

Mortal Stunt (-1)

skill: Presence

book name: Teflon Personality

effect: you gain Armor: 1 against social attacks

Self Defense Training

Mortal Stunt (-1)

skill: Fists

effect: use Fists for Combat Initiative instead of Alertness

Home Alive

Mortal Stunt (-1)

skill: Contacts

book name: Ear to the Ground

effect: difficulty of Getting the Tip Off roll reduced by two

story: Home Alive is a women’s self defense organization that helps young women get “home alive”, and was started as response to Mia Zapata’s murder

in addition, to the ‘normal’ organization, Zapata also applies this to her Paranet connections, they know that she’s on call to step in if they’re feeling in danger of a supernatural kind

Total Refresh: 2

MAGICITEMS

Ritual comes with 4 Enchanted Item slots

Refinement (-1 refresh) adds 4 more Enchanted Item slots

BIGQUESTION:

how to handle The Catch of an item being hexable

using as reference: The Catch rules that apply to the Toughness supernatural power…

it would add up to a 2 pt adjustment (magical people being rare, and then also that it’s easy enough to know and exploit)

so if a specific Item has this Catch, it has 2 extra shifts to work with

Ideas…

Studded Bracelets

something to make her fist attacks do some real damage

3 shifts for wpn power

weapon 3

2 shifts: +2 uses per day

non-techie item

use Fists to target

one extra slot: +2 more uses

Fractal Armor

something to help protect multiple allies in her zone, set up as Armor

4 shifts for armor: 2 pts if armor

2 shifts to cover allies in a zone

1 shift duration: plus 1 exchange

techie item

Hex Ward Charm

something that can provide a little protection to her techie gadgets from hostile hexing

2 shifts duration: a few min >> a half hour

3 shifts Block

non-techie item: sculpture / charm

one extra slot: +2 more uses

Hyper-Awareness

boost to awareness, focused on ‘hostile intent’

3 shifts for effect

+3 dice roll in the bank for Alertness = 4 Great

2 shifts duration: a few min >> a half hour

or +2 rounds if in combat time

non-techie item:

Skeleton Key

hack electronic security

3 shifts: maneuver for Aspect

+2 burglary vs tech

burglary (2) +1 scholarship +2 aspect: 5 base roll

4 shifts: +4 uses per day

techie item

Fear My Wrath

a fear spell to scare away mooks and thugs

3 shifts: maneuver

aspect on target: afraid

2 shifts duration: 2 extra rounds

targeting: discipline roll

+2 to roll to overcome resistance

techie item

comments about Magic Items…

crafted items can replicate most anything that can be done with Evocation (though more restrictive, obviously, and may be a bit less powerful)

can invest points in having MOREITEMS, or items that DO MORE things, or have MOREUSES

very dependent on LORE, not even sure whether Conviction or Discipline matter for crafting

plenty of room mundane skills and Mortal Stunts

SKILLS (35 pts)

1 Superb (+5)

Lore

2 Great (+4)

Fists

Scholarship

3 Good (+3)

Conviction

Resources

Presence

4 Fair (+2)

Burglary

Contacts

Craftsmanship

Empathy

5 Average (+1)

Alertness

Athletics

Deceit

Discipline

Driving

Endurance

Mediocre (+0)

Intimidation

Investigation

Guns

Might

Performance

Rapport

Stealth

Survival

Weapons

comments about Resources…

On page 140, it has this table related to Resources and ‘workspaces’.

Within this character concept I have 3 competing potential categories of work:

‘Scholarship’ for computer research

‘Craftsmanship’ for art projects

and ‘Ritual’ crafting for magic items

first, Ritual doesn’t need a lab to make magic items. but it could use a lab for ‘big thaumaturgic projects’. so since she doesn’t have the broader Thaumaturgy, that would be unnecessary right now

with the “Math is Beautiful” Stunt above, I’m using my Scholarship for art projects… which means that I can just have the lab focused on Craftsmanship

it would just mean that the computer side of the lab isn’t for ‘research’